


Who are we really?

by h8tedhannah



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Biseuxal Hawk, Enemies to Lovers, Gay Demitri, Kreese is an annoying bitch, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post big school fight, Slow Burn, anger issues, best friends to enemies to lovers, small bit for Lawrusso, wlw moon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:01:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26685562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h8tedhannah/pseuds/h8tedhannah
Summary: Hawk stepped back from him, letting go of his shirt and letting held back tears run loose.Demitri grabbed his face and wiped the tears, not even phased as Eli tried to desperately swat his warm hands away. “This.” Demitri said softly as Eli buried himself in his shoulder. “Hawk...That isn’t you.”Post End of Season 2
Relationships: Demitri/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, John Kreese & Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Miguel Diaz & Johnny Lawrence, Moon/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz
Comments: 6
Kudos: 97





	1. bathroom stalls

**Author's Note:**

> warning for mentions of ableist and homophobic slurs!

Eli stood in front of the mirror, cleaning the last bits of blood from his face. We winced as he carefully pulled a shard of glass from his arm, from the trophy case his ex best friend had pushed him into. Eli was one who was used to the unexpected, he was far from the expectation of expected himself, but one thing he would have expected was his loss to Demitri. His once best friend, who refused to hurt a fly, his friend, who once ran from every fight possible, defeated Eli at his own sport. He banged his fist on the sink as he thought about the situation again. How could Demitri win with showing so much mercy? It didn’t only hurt his pride, but it hurt as it brought those deep memories of the old Eli, before Hawk, before Cobra Kai, before miguel. When it was just him and Demitri, fighting with mercy long before they knew it. 

~~ flashback

“hey! scarface!” Eli’s hands grasped desperately tight onto his backpack straps, and he sighed as he began to speed walk down the hallway. Kyler and his friends caught up to him nevertheless. “Scarface. I was talking to you.” The boy said, waving a hand in his face. “Oh shit. Not only is his face fucked up, he’s also retarded in the head!” He laughed, hitting Eli on the side of his head. “You know, maybe he’s mute or some shit. Seriously Eli, what the fuck is wrong with you? Pretty sure you belong over there instead of this hallway.” He said, pointing and pushing Eli over towards the special education classroom. “Eli the fucking retard. Eli the fucking retard.” Kyler and his friends chanted. Eli started feeling those hot tears drag down his face and he begin to run away before he got beat up. The chanting followed him down the hall, when it suddenly stopped. It was silent for a few moments, but laughter boomed and the sound of someone being pushed against a locker replaced it. Eli turned around for a moment before heading into the bathroom; to see a tall and lanky boy with black hair being bullied by Kyler’s friends. His books were strewn in a mess on the floor and the boy yelled in protest as Eli heard the words, “fag” and “nerd” . 

Eli shakily unraveled his sandwich, and took a bite. His appetite was long gone considering he was eating in a bathroom stall, his legs holding him up on the toilet, but his mom would question too much if he came home without eating his lunch. This became a normal thing for Eli, hiding from bullies in a bathroom stall everyday, but the reason he was nervous is because someone else had began doing it to. He didn’t know who they were, but he heard the boy come in just after Eli, and then stay until the end of the lunch period. Occasionally there was a laugh, or the sound short sound of the Game of Thrones or Harry Potter Theme song, meaning whoever it was in the other stall was a nerd. Eli was a little better at staying quiet, but today he made a fatal mistake. He opened his screen to watch the new episode of GOT, and realized 1 second too late that his headphones weren’t plugged in. His eyes widened as he realized the theme song echoed through the stalls. It went dead silent again for a moment, before the sound of scurrying was met with a knock at his stall door. “Hello?” a voice said on the other side. Eli stared at the boys feet, not moving a muscle. “Oh come on. I’m not a dumbass mystery man. I know you are in there and I also know you’re watching the new episode right now. Please let me in good sir. You can’t hide from the white walkers forever.” Slowly Eli opened the door, revealing the “nerd fag” that was being bullied that one time. “oh. you. ok so let me tell you. My mom saw I had been fucked up by Kyler’s gang and I had bruises, anyways my mom thought it was a hickey. Like someone like me would ever be able to get a girlfriend, let alone a blowjob am i right? I can’t even see myself talking to the opposite gender let alone- nevermind. Anyways she took away my computer which means I can’t watch the new episode and I have HAVE to know if Jon Snow dies this time because it’s really begun to be all I think about. So please. Can i join your uh,...stall?” Jesus. This boy talked a lot. a complete opposite of Eli. He akwardly closed the stall door behind him and titled his screen so that the boy could see the screen clearly. Maybe it was a little werid to have two bullied boys sharing a stall, but in their case, Eli just prayed Kyler wouldn’t walk in. The boy next to him talked during the episode about every 3 minutes, making a snarky remark or pausing to search something technical and nerdy on the show, accidentally discovering spoilers twice. It was nice to not watch it in complete silence like Eli usually did, but this kid could probably talk his ear off and leave Eli with the opportunity to only nod his head. Soon the episode ended, along with the lunch period and the boys scrambled to separate out of their shared stall and they heard Kylers voice down the hall. “Thanks. Names Demitri by the way.” The boy said with a dorky smile. He held out his hand and Eli shook it. “You don’t talk much, do you?” Eli just quietly said. “Eli. I’m Eli.” It was so soft Demitri could barley even hear it, but somehow, to Eli’s surprise, for the first time in a long time, he saw the boy look at him straight in the eyes and say “Nice to meet you Eli.” without once looking down in disgust at his lip. 

and that’s how it started. Everyday, the two would cram into the same shit smelling stall, sit on their backpacks with sandwiches in hand, and watch the new episode of Game of Thrones. Soon Eli began to talk more, walk with a little more confidence as he now had a friend, and even smile on rare occasions. Within a few months, the two gained enough confidence to meet outside of the stalls, and soon the hallways, and finally, after almost a year, they started eating in the cafeteria like all the other freshman. Sure, it was their own deserted table and they were often still picked on and beat up, but now they had something important. a buddy system, a friend. 

Eli- no- Hawk, wondered now, as he sat in front of the mirror, his freshly cut red Mohawk blending in with the blood on his head, listening to his mom on the phone with the police and the LaRussos Lawyer, if that was all a mistake and he should have just kept the stall locked.


	2. Warrior

“Hes not pressing charges Eli.”   
“Hawk. Mom; it’s hawk.” Eli said, the weakest he’s probably ever said it. His mother sighed and her hands tightened around the steering wheel. “Why did you do it? I thought- I thought you loved him.” Eli’s brows furrowed in anger. “Just because he’s a fag doesn’t mean I am too.” Eli’s mom scoffed. “I didn’t mean it like that Eli. I meant, it used to be you and him against the world, and now you’re fighting the only person who treated you with compassion?” “He treated me bad too, you know. He didn’t let me be who I wanted.” The car stopped abruptly. “We’re, here. We’ll continue this later.” 

Eli hated the hospital. Especially considering the fact that one of his best friends was in there, dying from a coma. Well, maybe he had awoken recently , but Eli saw defeat as defeat. “Mozkowitz?” Eli’s head jerked up to see a middle aged nurse, and as she lead him to Miguel’s room, his heart began to race. Miguel was awake yes, but what if he forgot everything, what if he was completely paralyzed? “Hey.” Miguel’s voice said weakly as Eli entered the door. “Hey.” He said back. He didn’t look Miguel in the eyes, to be fair he didn’t know if he could. “I’m glad you’re up now.” Eli said to him. Miguel failed and betrayed everything they worked for, he showed mercy. “So I guess you finally got to beat up demitri huh?” Miguel asked, slightly laughing. Hawk stiffened and went silent. “Holy shit. No way...Look, I’m going to quit. Cobra kai- Kreese, it was a mistake morally. I think you should too, before you end up almost dead like me.” He said looking down. Hawk rose up in his chair. “The fuck are you talking about? I cant just throw it away because I lost one fucking time!” “I know Ha- Eli, it’s just- I don’t think, I don’t think it’s just about karate anymore.” Eli was tempted to punch Miguel in the face although it was already dark purple. “It was never just about karate for me!” He said , standing up. “But you already lost Demit-.” “NO! Don’t you dare fucking say his name. I’ll do what I want and beat his ass again if I have to. Losers like you don’t have a say in my choice.” He said, turning around to get out of the room. Miguel just nodded, letting him go. He was done trying to tame Hawk, it was something he knew only one boy could do. 

Demitri honestly had no idea what he was doing here. Sure, going to see Sam before her release made sense, but going to see Miguel was an entire different ordeal. He knew it was going to be extremely akward, but he wanted to make sure he was at least on clear terms with the boy. He walked with a slight limp to the room, courtesy of Eli. God Eli, Demitri thought to himself. Everytime he thought of the other boys face he was almost brought to tears. He didn’t even know how to feel about it anymore. He didn’t even how he was supposed to. There was anger, definitely, regret, but most of all was sadness. loneliness...longing. He missed this best friend, the one who would wet the bed and cry over fictional characters, the one who would jump during horror movies and move a little too close to Demitri, sometimes even wrapping an arm or leg around him. He missed Eli. Not who he was now, not Hawk. But what could he do now right? He looked down at his phone, a notification from his twitter.

Draco Tiktok?   
He smiled for a moment and blushed. Ah yes, Draco Malfoy, basically his gay awakening. Well, the one that Eli knew about at least. 

—-

“Well, you can’t possibly like hermionie as she has the same personality as you, so, I give up. I don’t know which girl you like.” Eli sighed, playing with the ends his favorite green hoodie. “Well, as honored as I am to be compared to her, it’s actually....it’s actually um- actually.” Eli laughed, “just say it. cant be that bad. you’re starting to stutter like me.” Demitri took a deep breath and looked down at the floor. “it’s um. Draco.” The air between the two best friends went quiet instantly. “I’m- I think I like boys, Eli.” Demitri said, still looking down at the floor. “oh.” was all Eli said. “I’m sorry- that was such a shit way of coming out. I don’t want it to be weird now because I like boys, like It’s not like I think about you in a weird way or anything It’s just mostly I don’t want things to change but-.” He was interrupted by Eli resting his hand on his knee. “Really Dem, it’s cool.” He said, smiling lightly. “Cool.” Demitri said back. “Cool.” And really they lived up to that, even though Demitri admitted his secret, they still really were the best of friends. They still had their sleepovers, game nights, study sessions, it was all the same. Maybe both of them got a little more butterflies than usual on the days when Eli would pee the bed and have to cuddle up on Demitris twin sized one than they like to admit, or sometimes when their hands brushed or their faces got a little too close the temperature suddenly rose, but it wasn’t something that bothered either of them. Well it did, internally, but the unknown was scary so they just kept doing what they knew how to do, be there for eachother. 

——-

“Oh how times have changed.” Dimitri thought, blinking back tears. Never would he have thought a random kid and some karate would leave him without a best friend, in the hospital, and almost arrested. His hand rested on the doorknob to Miguel’s area, and he sighed as he began to turn it. Suddenly it all happened in a flash and the door swung open with such force he wouldn't be surprised if it broke. His hand was pushed back from the door and he tried to mutter an apology for being in the angry persons way, thinking it may have been someone scary like Kreese or Lawrence. When he looked up though, he wished it actually was Kreese, because who he saw scared him so much more. Eli stood there and stopped in his tracks, letting his hand ball into fists too naturally, his red hair titling along with his head. Eli’s eyes narrowed as he gulped and their eyes locked for a few seconds too long. “The fuck are you doing here?” Eli said weakly. He wanted the words to come out scary and he wanted nothing but to ruin Demitri right now, but something inside him was telling him not to. “He-He was my friend too you know. Not just your karate buddy.” Eli only scoffed in response. “Not my buddy anymore. Too soft.” He began to walk away from Demitri, but he could have sworn he heard Hawk mutter something about beating his ass and watching his back before the other boy caught the collar of his shirt and pulled him back. Hawk didn’t even move, he stayed frozen as Demitri pulled him back. “Sometimes.” he said, quietly into Eli’s ear, “Sometimes showing mercy is the most noble trait a warrior could ever possess.” Their eyes locked for half a second, the calm meeting the storm, And with that, he let him go.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry this chap is a little slow, but i had to do a flashback as their will probably be a few in this story but yeah we’ll get there


End file.
